1876 Theme

Actual Hayes Campaign Song from 1876

Actual Tilden Campaign Song from 1876

River Roam (The Lakota Song)

Dave Does History: The Disputed Election of 1876
Four segments | Approximately 30–45 minutes

Segment 1: A Country Under Pressure

• America celebrates its centennial amid political scandals, economic hardship, and continuing divisions after the Civil War.
• Meet the candidates: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden.
• Violence and intimidation against Black voters undermine the election in the South.

Segment 2: An Election Without a Clear Winner

• Tilden wins the popular vote and holds 184 undisputed electoral votes, one short of victory.
• Twenty electoral votes remain disputed in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon.
• Competing electoral returns expose uncertainty about how Congress should settle the result.

Segment 3: How Hayes Becomes President

• Congress creates a special Electoral Commission to resolve the disputes.
• The commission awards every disputed vote to Hayes through a series of 8–7 decisions.
• Hayes wins, 185–184. Political negotiations help secure acceptance of the outcome, alongside assurances concerning Southern self-government and federal troops.

Segment 4: The Cost of the Settlement

• Hayes removes troops protecting the remaining Republican state governments in Louisiana and South Carolina, marking the end of Reconstruction.
• Black Southerners face increasing violence, disenfranchisement, and segregation.
• Congress eventually passes the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
• Central discussion: The immediate political crisis ended, but who paid the lasting price?